Heritage BC has been holding meetings in communities across the province to discuss the meaning of the word ‘heritage’. The Quesnel roundtable meeting took place in the Council Chambers at City Hall on Sept. 19.
There will be 20 roundtables in total, and each discussion will get an individual report written about it before every report is condensed into a single report.
From there, the findings will go to the provincial government.
Paul Gravett, the executive director of Heritage BC, was contracted by the province to lead these discussions.
Gravett says the discussions are all about “where is heritage going and what does it mean to community?”
While he suspects the reports may serve to support local heritage initiatives, he says another byproduct of the meeting is that it brings together many people who work in the heritage sector who might otherwise never have had a chance to meet.
Although it’s the Province’s report Gravett will be submitting, he says at Heritage BC they’ll also use the findings to influence their programs and initiatives around the province, and bolster their relationship with the provincial government.
The Quesnel discussion was guided by a series of eight questions around heritage, which considered the “heritage identity of B.C.,” the economy, the environment and the future, among others.
Elizabeth Hunter, the museum and heritage manager of the Quesnel and District Museum and Archives, helped co-ordinate the event with Heritage BC, although she didn’t know what to expect from it.
“I participated in a similar exercise about 10 years ago when I first arrived in Quesnel,” says Hunter. “This time the conversation was much more abstract; basic concepts and definitions, and it wasn’t focused so much on the specific initiatives.”
She agreed with Gravett that a key benefit of these meetings is that they bring together all the heritage workers in the community. “It’s really nice to get a broad cross-section in the room and have a general conversation.”
Hunter was also glad to see Gravett coming to Quesnel in person. “I’m always working with these Victoria or Vancouver-based organizations and so it’s just good to get staff up to see the area and get a sense – you know he got a sense of how close to the heritage people are in this community, that they know their stuff and are passionate about it.”
heather.norman@quesnelobserver.com
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